This application relates to a burner and method for heating a furnace, and in particular an industrial melting furnace, to provide enhanced heat transfer while improving uniformity of heating and reducing potential overheating and oxidizing conditions at a melt bath surface.
In a conventional system, the heat, provided by a stationary flame, is not directed towards the melt, thereby limiting the heat transfer from the flame to the melt. Moreover, if a conventional system were modified to direct a stationary flame toward the melt, undesirable overheating and oxidation of the metal may occur. An approach to avoid overheating, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,554,022, is to direct a low momentum flame toward the melt and then impinge of high momentum jet onto the low momentum flame, causing the flame to move. However, in this approach there is still a significant potential for metal oxidation and buoyant flames that can interact with and overheat the furnace refractory.